The Legacy of Sei
by TerangrealS
Summary: This is a one-shot with Trunks and original characters? Not a self-insertion, a little darker. I read this ten years after publishing, and I'm a little proud of myself despite the lack of character depth and the unnaturally abrupt plot twists.


The Legacy of Sei  
Strange World  
I'm admitting this at the beginning: I am stupid and embarrassed, and I really don't want to relate how I know that. I'm only telling this because if I don't, it will be lost, and no one will ever remember it.  
My name is Trunks. I was about 6', 20 years old, lavender hair, blue eyes, muscular build, superhuman strength. You know. The usual.  
I'm not kidding about the superhuman strength part, either. I don't kid when I'm being serious. I guess that comes with being half Saiya-jin. I know that's where my temper comes from.  
Anyway, I went to school, like most normal kids. I was a senior at a high school which I cannot name, because Bulma told me not to. I was a little older than the average high school student because, let's face it, you don't go to school when you're saving the world from evil cyborgs. I'm gonna start at the beginning, where it will at least make a little sense…  
  
I sighed with relief as the bell rang in the middle of the history teacher's speech. I had next period off and really didn't want to spend it doing homework.   
"See you on Monday. Class dismissed!" Mrs. Sakana said over the white noise of books being put away and backpacks being zipped up. Funny how she can sound boring, even while she's shouting.  
I was trying to shove my way out of the crowded doorway when she yelled my name. "We need to discuss your grades…" she said.  
"Sorry, Mrs. Sakana. No time. Can't be late!" I shouted back as I was shoved out of the way by a little freshman carrying a backpack twice her size. I was walking quickly towards the stairs, trying to walk slowly enough for the teachers to not yell at me to stop running, when I saw her.  
She was beautiful.  
I don't mean like the kind of beautiful where a girl's got a great figure and perfect features and is more popular than all the other girls. I don't mean the kind of beautiful where she wears so much makeup that you can't see her face. I'm talking about real beauty.  
She had ebony hair a shade darker than the moonless night that was strewn wildly about her pale face. Her high cheekbones emphasized clear eyes the color of the sea that pierced right through me as she glanced curiously in my direction. She was wearing a tight black shirt with a loose black man's dress shirt unbuttoned over it. Baggy pants that somehow seemed to suggest perfect legs underneath. Her shape wasn't as good as some of the girl's I've dated, but they wouldn't measure up to her.  
She walked through the crowded halls somehow alone and apart. You could tell that she was different; her stride somehow more graceful than any others', her gaze more intense that anyone I had ever met. And then she was gone, swallowed into the swirling crowd of teenagers.  
I was going to eat lunch my free period, but instead I decided to see where she was going. I lost myself in the mob behind her, but somehow couldn't keep my eyes on her. Even the advantage of my height couldn't find her. The tardy bell rang and everyone was suddenly sucked into his or her classes as if drawn by some invisible magic. I sighed and proceeded to the stairway, intent on having enough of a lunch to actually enjoy my food.  
That afternoon, after a very tiring day at school, I was trying to relax with some sword forms behind the Capsule Corp. dome. I had taken my shirt off long before, but it still felt at least 100 degrees outside. The only person I wanted to fight at that moment was the sun, because he doesn't talk very much and I wasn't in the mood to talk. I was about to take a break and admit defeat when I spotted a figure leaning against a nearby fence watching me work my forms.  
It was her. The girl from school.  
I tried to act at ease as I paused to look at her, but I didn't do a very good job of it. I'm not shy, really, but she was enough to make my mouth go dry. I somehow managed to walk slowly, almost casually, towards her. I stopped when I was about twenty feet away.  
"What are you doing here?" I questioned, trying to sound not interested.  
"Watching you," she answered, cooler than ice, which is surprising in the afternoon sun. "You're that guy from school." Not a question, but a statement of fact. As if she had marked me out when she saw me.   
"You're really good. Where did you learn how to do that?" she asked, indicating the sword still in my hand.  
"Uh…an old friend," I told her, which is kinda the truth, if you think about it. "But… why are you watching me?"  
"Because I'm going to fight like you someday," she said without missing a beat. "Will you teach me?"  
Now, I'll be the first to tell you that this wasn't the first time that some wimp has come and asked me how to fight. And I personally didn't think she had it in her to learn. But, what kind of idiot would say no to a hot girl? "Maybe. If you're good enough," I replied. "What's you're name?"  
A smile brushed her full lips and she said softly, "Aoi Tsuki. And you?"  
I contemplated telling her that my name was something cool, like Sword Master or something like that. Unfortunately that wouldn't work, because I'm not really into those secret identity kinds of things. "Trunks."  
"Trunks," she said, rolling the sound over her tongue like she was tasting an exotic flavor. "When do we start?"  
"Now," I informed her. That kind of made it final for me. I first thought of it as a thing to say to pick up chicks, but now I actually had to do it. I winced as I thought about what would happen when she realized that she would never be able to match my skill, strength, or speed. You can't win 'em all, I thought.  
And so we began.   
  
"No!" I scolded for the twentieth time or so. "You can't kick as fast or punch as strongly as I do. You're only a beginner, and it takes years of training to get to my level. So stop trying!"  
Aoi just glared at me and looked away. "Again," she said, like she was the teacher and I was the student. She took the fighting position readily, exactly like I had taught her, waiting expectantly for me to attack again. I was about ready to give up, but obviously she wasn't.  
Then I made the mistake of trying to discourage her. I thought, maybe if I got her a little bruised, she would quit, because this is tiring…  
I whirled into a front sidekick so fast that there was no possibility that she could block it or dodge it. What is that saying by some wise person, like "Never underestimate your enemies"? Obviously I must have missed that, because what happened next just blew me away.  
Aoi blocked my kick without flinching or even moving anything except her left arm. She followed with a right hook punch that almost bruised my jaw. Ordinarily, she would have never even landed that punch, because I would have been on my guard. But it convinced me that she had the guts, or at least the incentive, to maybe make a good fighter.   
Of course, as soon as she punched me I tripped her onto her back. I was kinda angry because of that punch… okay, I was really angry. I caught myself before I landed another kick to her side.  
I was about to help her up when she began making a small sound. It started out like a whimper, and grew until it sounded like sobs. Still facedown in the dirt, she was crying? I started to ask her what was wrong when I realized what she was doing. She was laughing. Aoi lifted her head out of the dirt, and bitter laughter was pouring out of her until it looked like it hurt.  
I backed a step away. She must be delusional, maybe she had hit her head when I tripped her, I thought. Then she noticed me looking at her like she was crazy and stopped laughing so abruptly I almost jumped.   
She gave me a grim smile and rose the rest of the way to her feet, a large purple bruise coloring her arm where she had blocked my kick. I was so shocked I was barely able to say, "Maybe… maybe we should stop for the day."  
For some reason unable to speak, Aoi shook her head and took her fighting stance once more. I noticed a thin ribbon of crimson trickling slowly down from the corner of her mouth. Dirt caked her pretty face and stray locks of midnight black hair hung motionless in the hot, humid air.  
"I really think you should come back tomorrow," I repeated slowly, thinking that she was in no shape to fight for the rest of the day. Again she shook her head stubbornly.  
I sighed and attacked again, this time slowly and deliberately so that she had at least a chance of winning. She easily blocked my punch and tried to attack me with an uppercut, but doubled over as, without warning, I kicked her hard in the stomach. She fell to the ground again, but this time remained there, unable to move.  
Her eyes were still open, and she tried to laugh, but it only came out as an odd hacking cough that brought blood to her lips. "Are you okay?" I asked, leaning over to look into her pale sea-green eyes. She nodded a little, the movement almost imperceptible. I picked up her weak body and set her in the shade of a nearby tree, where she lay for a long time.  
Finally, after long years had passed, her breathing became normal and Aoi managed to lean her back up against the tree. "You're stronger than you look," was all that she was able to say. After a while she gained enough strength to rise unsteadily to her feet.  
She was walking away, probably back home, when she called to me, "I'll see you tomorrow." I just sat there, not looking at her or anything else, and closed my eyes against the glare of the setting sun.  
  
After about a month of training with me, her body became tougher, and her stride was no longer only graceful, but powerful as well. Aoi was stronger than I had first anticipated, and adapted well to my fighting. She was great at defense and I only had to work a little with her on attacking before we moved on to weapons.  
She insisted that I should teach her how to do sword work, but I refused, saying that there was no need. The strange thing is, she never once asked me anything more than my name. Not where I learned to fight, not where I got my sword. Not even where I lived. She didn't show any interest in dating me either, to my disappointment.  
After about three months of fighting, the weather changed, and it was winter. I started to wear my Capsule Corp. jacket while sparring, but she never brought a coat, a jacket, or even a sweater. Just the same black shirt and over-shirt, and the same dark olive pants. I don't think I ever even saw her legs until after… but that was far in the future. I was unsuspecting until I followed her one afternoon.  
Aoi had been fighting really well that day, and as she walked as usual past the abandoned building that was behind the Capsule Corp. dome and out of sight I realized that I had forgotten to tell her not to come tomorrow because I would be busy. I don't even remember now what it was I had to do. I followed her as she weaved in and out of empty warehouses that were black with their own ruin. I began to get curious as to where she lived, and decided to follow her all the way to her house before revealing myself.  
Most of the buildings were abandoned, mainly because of the jinzouningen's earlier rampage that destroyed most of the world. She was walking past a deserted movie theater when a boy, little more than 14, accidentally bumped into her. He turned around and, though I was too far to hear the words, seemed to be apologizing.   
Aoi smiled graciously, and made a move with her right hand as if to pat him on the shoulder. Her left caught him in the side of the head, knocking him to the ground so violently I could hear the crack of his head hitting the pavement. She then proceeded to kick him over and over until his blood ran out onto the sidewalk; the look on her face I could only describe as being a sort of half-sneer, half-growl.   
I was too shocked to move. She then stalked on away, her boots leaving crimson tracks from a pool of rich blood that was slowly seeping from the boy's beaten and bruised body, apparently unaware of any witnesses.  
After she was gone I ran to the boy and cautiously lifted the blood-soaked shirt from his body. The skin was mutilated. I felt for a heartbeat. I found a faint one. I tenderly picked up the limp body and flew home.  
  
Sei opened his eyes to find that movement meant unimaginable pain. He closed them again quickly, his instincts kicking in and telling him to try to relax and get an idea of where he was. His body ached all over.  
He was in some kind of liquid, and had an oxygen mask on. He could feel his wounds healing slowly, though he had forgotten where he had gotten them. Must have made some of the guys really mad. I'm pretty stupid if I let one of those idiots catch me, he thought.  
Sei overheard sounds, though they were faint and blurred. Soon his hearing cleared enough so that he could make out the individual voices. The voices sounded like they belonged to a young man and an older woman.  
"Will he make it?" the deep-voiced male asked.  
"I think so," replied the woman. "There was massive internal bleeding, and he lost a lot of blood, but nothing that I can't handle. What I want to know is who would do such a horrible thing to a little boy like him? He's probably only thirteen!"  
"Well…" the young man began, "it's hard to explain. I think I know who did it, though."  
"Who? Tell me, Trunks! You know you can't hide anything from me. I'm your mother!" the woman (Trunks' mother, Sei presumed) asked urgently.  
"It doesn't matter. I'll take care of it. Don't worry; just make sure the kid gets out okay, all right mom?" Trunks brushed aside her question without any traces of worry in his voice.  
At that point in the conversation, Sei opened his eyes and saw that he was floating in a tank of a yellowish fluid. Outside stood a muscle-bound youth of about 18 talking to a blue-haired woman. He tried to say something to them, but found that he couldn't make himself heard through the oxygen mask.   
He cautiously removed the mask, and then banged on the smooth glass of the tank. The blue-haired woman looked immediately up at him, her eyes widening in surprise as she realized that he was awake. Sei could tell that she had been very beautiful when she was young. She moved over to a computer console that was built into the wall. Pushing a few buttons, she looked up at him and smiled as the liquid slowly drained out of the tank.  
Sei took in a deep breath as he moved cautiously to the edge of the tank. The woman pushed a few more buttons, and the front of the tank opened up like a door. She motioned him to come stand near her. He shook his head and backed away, feeling like a cornered beast.  
"Oh, silly boy. I won't hurt you. Why would I go to the trouble of saving your life if I wanted to do that?" She laughed. "I'm Bulma, and this is my son Trunks. He found you and brought you here. What's your name?"  
He shot a wary glance at Trunks, and then said quietly, "Sei."  
Bulma smiled at him again, and then asked, "Would you like something to eat?" When Sei nodded eagerly, she took him by the arm and drew him into a spacious kitchen. She opened the cupboards to reveal a massive supply of food. "When you have a saiy… I mean a hungry young son, you can never have enough food," explained Bulma. And that strange teenager named Trunks just stared at him the whole time. It was enough to make a guy nervous, because something about him made Sei think of a caged lion, of barely contained rage and outrage. And of cold hatred.  
  
I watched the boy eat up my food and thought about Aoi. From time to time the boy, Sei, glanced up and gave me a frightened look. He wasn't really very big or strong looking for his age. He had a kind of slender look about him instead, almost but not quite feminine. His skin was an earthy tan color, which together with his tangled dark brown hair and brown eyes were enough to convince me that he was Hispanic. If he had a sister, she would be seriously hot.  
"May I please have some more?" Sei asked Bulma politely.   
"Of course," she answered, swiftly replacing the empty bowl with a full one. "So, tell me, Sei, who did this to you?"  
Sei looked away, and then touched the bandage wrapped around his head. "I… I really don't remember. The last thing I know was that I was supposed to be walking back from the store. I was just passing the old movie theater and then…" he let his words hang in the air, tainted with suspense.  
"And then what?" demanded Bulma impatiently.  
Sei shrugged. "I don't remember anything after that. But Trunks was there. Make him tell you," he said, indicating me with his hand.  
Bulma looked at me. "You didn't tell me you were there. What happened? Who did this to him?"  
I was silent, my emotions churning within me. On one hand was the terrible wrong that Aoi had committed, for no apparent reason, but on the other hand was her smiling face and her strange determination not unlike my own. Underlying it all was a burning desire I had for her that would not be quieted, even in the face of logic and reason. And so I was silent.  
  
Bulma regarded her son with an equal measure of shock and outrage. Trunks had not lied to her, but he had withheld information that was valuable to not only the boy's health but also the safety of others! And he could still stand there with his arms crossed and a dislike for the whole world on his face, looking exactly like his father and stirring deep love even in her angry heart.  
"Trunks, tell me what happened," she commanded, using all of her rank as his mother to get at least an answer out of him. He regarded her with cold blue eyes, turned, and walked out the door. Silence rang loudly in the room, and for a few seconds nobody moved. Then, she ran out of the kitchen door and out through the house into the foyer. The front door was open, and she was just in time to see Trunks flying off over the horizon of broken buildings.  
  
I flew a long, long time. I landed at the edge of town, where nobody lives because everyone thinks it's haunted. The abandoned houses stared at me with their empty windows and brought back memories of a broken past. I cried out with rage and broke their twisted smiles into frowns as I rent their walls into scraps. I took my sword and ripped at the ground, destroying what was left after the jinzouningen's rampage. I screamed at the world to end and I hated myself.  
And then I cried.  
I didn't know that I could cry.  
I thought myself before incapable of feeling but now I knew that I was a helpless puppet to my emotions. I knew now that I was weaker than anyone because of what had happened to me when I was young. And when I dared to have a close friendship again, I was pried out of my protective covering and my soul was torn to pieces. I hated myself.  
After I was so hollow that nothing could ever fill me again and my walls were built once more around me, I looked up and saw Sei looking at me. He was sitting on a piece of stone from a house that I had churned into the present broken landscape. He was calmly watching me, with no indication that he had just seen my soul ripped from my body. Except that trickling down his cheek was a single tear.  
"How long have you been here?" I asked him, more arrogantly than I had intended, but just as well.  
"I got here about when you turned Super Saiyajin and blasted every one of these buildings to bits," he replied softly, looking at me with unspeakable sadness in his eyes. I cringed. That wouldn't have been a pretty sight for anyone, especially not some little kid.  
"How did you get here that quickly?"  
"Bulma let me borrow her car. You know, the one that flies? Actually pretty cool."  
"You okay?"  
"I should be asking you that." Sei peered into my eyes as if to find some reason in the unreasonable destruction. I looked away.  
"Something happened a long time ago…" I began, "really messed me up, ya' know." Sei nodded, but I couldn't continue. These things are a little hard to talk about.  
"Um… Trunks," Sei began, but stopped as if speaking was an effort. He tried again. "Bulma told me that… she did something to me. To make me heal faster. She… replaced some of the stuff inside me. Said that I should tell you, it was too hard for her. She wanted you to know that it's kinda like the stuff that happened to the other people. The people that… Dr. Gero did something with? Turned their bodies into machines." He looked up at me, almost helplessly.  
I looked back at him, and tried to smile. I failed miserably. I was in shock. My own mother…? Just like juuhachigou and juunanagou! How could she!?  
"I'm… sorry. Kind of. I don't really know what I've done wrong, but I'll go now." Sei turned to leave. I didn't stop him.  
As he walked away, I heard him mutter, "Tatsu."  
"What? What do you mean, dragon?" I moved towards departing figure and put a hand on his shoulder.  
"Not dragon," he said, looking back at me. "Demon."  
I frowned at him. "You have the nerve to call me a demon! Why you little…" I put a warning hand on his throat, just to make him see how close he was to really making me mad.  
He didn't even flinch, much less quiver with fear. He just whispered, looking down, "You have so much hatred in you. It's killing you, or at least your soul. I don't know why you can't see that. Your rage for whatever it is made you do this to these buildings." His voice strengthened, and he was able to meet my eyes. My grip loosened. "And now you're so far gone that if you go any further, you'll start killing people. First you'll just think that someone deserved it, but it will get so bad that no one will be safe. You won't even be safe from yourself."  
When he ended, I drew my hand from his throat as if it burned. It almost hurt like it was. I looked at my hand. It was still my own. I could see now clearly what everyone else could see. My own rage turning to madness, turning me against everyone and everything… the picture in my mind was terrible. "But… Bulma? My mom? Can't she stop this? She can do anything else," I said with finality. "She can help me."  
Sei just shook his head sadly. "Trunks, no one can help you but yourself." He sighed. "I'm going back to your house. See you there." He walked away, and left me alone with only my twisted fate to comfort me.  
  
Aoi came to me next. She stood there, looking at me with her arms folded. I looked back at her. Finally she broke the silence.  
"I take it you're not sparring with me today." Her eyes moved up and down my body, lingering and taking in my emotional state. I knew her enough by now that my whole posture, my body language was crying out to her "vulnerable!" Still, it feels good to be checked out by a hot girl. She moved closer.  
My voice stopped her. "I saw what you did to that little kid yesterday, Aoi. Why?"   
She shrugged. "He deserved it." Her echo of Sei's previous words deeply troubled me. She started to close the small space between our bodies. "Let's forget about that now, okay? I won't do it again." It sounded like an empty promise, but the fact that I had her closer now than ever before made it not matter. She put an arm on my shoulder.  
Her touch was like an electric shock. It raced through my body, but it also woke up my warning sensors. I pulled away. "No," I almost shouted in the effort to sound firm. "I can't forget. You almost killed him. And your penalty is that… that you have just lost your right to train with me."  
Aoi drew back and snarled at me. A wave of energy washed off of her wave and almost knocked me to my feet. Her anger was growing visibly. I had never taught her any ki attacks, but her power level suddenly rose to impossible heights. The backwash from her sent me reeling back.  
Her feet rose to hover a few feet from the ground as she suddenly discovered how to fly. An aura of unholy light grew from within and seemed to burst out of her; increasingly bright though tainted with veins of darkness. She looked down at me like a lion would look down on a kitten.  
"So you refuse to let me train with you." Aoi's voice sounded hoarse and strained, too strange for her beautiful face and figure. "What do you think you would have done, boy? Would you have beaten the little one too? Or would you have patted him on the back and sent him on his way? Don't fool yourself. You are just like me, though you refuse to accept it. Embrace your fate, do not hide from it!"  
I wouldn't admit it. I looked away from her. Aoi drifted closer, until she was within an arm's reach of me. Her evil aura stung my eyes and burned my skin. She touched my cheek surprisingly gently, and forced my eyes to look into hers. I wanted so badly to give in… to love her… but I could not. I could not betray my mother, or Sei, or the rest of the world to her. I could only whisper softly, "no…"  
She snarled again at me, and then slapped my face. The noise rang like a gunshot in the manmade junkyard of lost hopes. The light grew brighter around her, but I noticed that the veins of darkness grew as well. Her muscles bulged. She drew back to throw a punch at my face…  
…and I caught it one-handed. She was never any good at offense. I kneed her in the stomach and tossed her aside like a broken rag doll. To my surprise, she bounded to her feet and kicked at me. It caught me in the lower jaw. I tasted blood, and as she executed a perfect back pivot kick, she was surprised to find me gone. She slowly turned around, sure what she would find.  
Aoi was right. I held my sword point against her throat, the tiny nick producing a thin trickle of blood that streamed down her pale neck. Her eyes pleaded with me not to do it. "Why?" she whispered in her sweet voice, so softly that it seemed that the lightest breeze could snatch her words from her mouth. I ached to explain how I didn't want to kill her, that I felt so close to her and that my only hope in the world was to have her stay with me forever. My mouth was so dry that explaining was impossible.  
"I'm sorry," I whispered as I slashed my sword blindingly fast across her throat, neatly cutting her vein in half. It wasn't a very deep cut, just enough to kill. She would die quickly, I made sure of that. No need to suffer.  
Aoi crumpled to the ground. She looked like some kind of angel in a painting, with beauty and color about her and blood turning her lips red. She put a trembling hand up to her throat and felt the blood trickling down. She looked at me and said, "Hold me, until I… die, Trunks." And that is how Aoi left this life, her body cradled in my arms.  
  
I returned home with blood on my hands.  
Sei didn't look twice at me as I walked in with dried blood and caked mud all over me. Bulma, however, did.  
"What happened, Trunks?" she said with all the feeling of a worried mother. I looked at her and smiled, and told her that it was nothing. The problem was taken care of.  
The next day was hard for me. I couldn't stop myself from looked in the halls for Aoi Tsuki. That afternoon I was feeling lost without someone to spar with.  
"Hey, Trunks! Something wrong?" Sei said as he spotted me sitting under a tree (the same tree that I had first brought Aoi under) that afternoon.   
"I usually sparred with someone in the afternoon," I mumbled, hoping that he wouldn't hear it because it brought up so many questions…  
"Why aren't they here today?" Sei asked, unaware of what a sensitive subject he was touching upon.  
"Because I had to kill her, that's why. For being a danger to the world and to myself," I answered, grimly satisfied at the shock on his face. I turned away.  
"Trunks… I'll spar with you," Sei said comfortingly, though the horror was evident on his voice. I nodded and moved up to start the sparring, even though the random thought shot across my mind that he was a jinzouningen and likely just as strong as me.  
And so began my new life and the quitting of my old one.  



End file.
